The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

Ripe Red Home Grown Tomatoes in January?

A neighbor and I were conspirators (or should I say codependents?) on a couple of huge beefstake tomato plants this summer.  Well, they started to really started to take off again in the fall and had thousands of hard little green tomatoes by the end of November.  Trouble is, an unexpected freeze hit our desert area so I decided to chop the bushes down before they got messy.

Our first reaction was, "What a shame that we lost all those tomatoes" and "We'll just have to throw them out."  But someone in the neighborhood told of how his mother, a century ago up in Montana, put green tomatoes in the root cellar every fall, and how they ripened and were eaten in the snowy winter months. 

I don't have a root cellar, but we were going away for a month, so after cooking some up as fried green tomatoes, others as green tomato soup, and freezing some to use later, I saved some of the green guys in baskets on the kitchen table, closed the blinds, turned the heater off, and left on vacation, forgetting all about them.

 

When we returned, it was quite a surprise to see that they were still there, but lots of them were orange, as shown below.  I set them aside again in as cool a place as I could find out of direct sunlight, and by now all of them have ripened into a rich bright red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, almost all of them have been eaten by now.  The smaller ones were perfect in stir-fry, as they were firm enough to hold together, yet tender and sweet enough to enjoy. 

Hump Jumper

Wow, I met a celebrity today.  Well, sort of. 

I had mentioned this sewing tool in on online forum, some years back, actually, and another member introduced herself as the inventor of the gadget.  Here is her website:

How to Use the Hump Jumper

I love my little yellow hump jumper and was honored to make the acquaintance of its inventor.

Gelish is Delish

After spending two month's allowance on equipment and supplies I thought perhaps the whole adventure into do it myself shellac type manicures was going to be "Hellish" rather than "Delish" as in delicious.  But I am finding that the Gelish product line was a good choice for a non-professional do-it-yourselfer.

The best thing I did was to buy the LED lamp for curing each stage during the application.  After applying the foundation (base) coat, 10 seconds is a lot nicer than waiting a whole minute to continue.  Dunno if it is because I'm putting the base on too thick or what, but I'm finding that in way less than 10 seconds the nail bed gets far too hot to be comfortable, though.  But it turns out that taking my nails out and letting them cool every few seconds does not mess anything up.  Using the LED lamp, the curing time after the color and topcoat is only 30 seconds each.

 

I have applied the Gelish nails twice now and they came out great both times.  

There was a learning curve and I admit it took me a couple hours the first time.  Not including the soak-off, total time for applying the Gelish this time was 1/2 hour.  It will take a bit longer when I use my new mini airbrush.  Yes, I bought the cute little elephant shaped one.

Gotta Have Shellac

Ok, so after about 20 years of abstention, I finally went to a nail salon and asked for gel tips.  That was on June 28 and the lady in the salon put on some beautiful acrylic fakes instead.  By the time I realized what she was doing it seemed kind of too late to stop her, and she did do a beautiful job and the nails lasted well over a month...but they are still not gone.  Nope, I filed them down and did the fill-in myself with ridge filler and other kewl stuff while on vacation, and when we got back in September a different salon put shellac on top of what didn't come off in their removal soak thingee. 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the beautiful, thin, real looking, but shiny and hard and smooth nail surface this relatively new technology offers.

I was supposed to go back in two weeks, but instead I bought some Gelish stuff, including the new LED nail dryer, and I am SO going to try doing it myself.   

Update October 11:  OK, it was pretty easy to put on and 4 days later, all 10 nails are still looking great.  I can DO this!  The best thing I did was to get the LED dryer which takes 30 seconds instead of 2 minutes for each stage of the curing.  When I put the foundation on I found that the light was uncomfortably hot after just 5 seconds so I quick pulled my hand out and let it cool then did another 5 seconds.  It cooled fine and I had no issues with the 30 second curing after the color coat, white tips, and top coat.    So far I am VERY happy with the Gelish products, although the dryer was not their brand as I found a much cheaper one on eBay ($99 instead of $350).

Who You Callin' a Turkey?

OK, the last fuzzies that I photographed on the golf course were baby Canada geese, but were other birds too.  Bigger birds.  Wild turkeys to be exact, and do they ever make a racket.  

Yes, those are sand traps in the background, and I know some two-legged critters that make quite a racket, too, when their golf balls land in those. 

How many turkeys have I hit with my own ball so far?  Not telling.

Where Can We Put All the Stuff?

The reason I have not been blogging as reliably lately is a four letter word:  G-O-L-F.

Here is a photo of the links at my summer place:

 

Golf is a great excuse to get out and exercise in all kinds of weather. 

Here we saw quite a few critters on the grass.  Among them were deer, wild turkeys, and lots of rabbits.  They have red foxes here, but I didn't see any on this trip.

 

 

With all the electronic toys to take and bowling gear and now golf gear, I may have to get another shed to have a place to put all the stuff.

As I am a do-it-yourselfer (or was until all these sports started eating up my life), it is fascinating for me to see sites such as ryan henderson my shed plans review .  I love to see what other people have built as some enterprising back yard shed builders are quite imaginative.  Naturally, I want a potting stand that is accessible from inside and out my dream shed and places to store different kinds of soil and other plant stuff.  This, of course, wants to be isolated from my sports equipment. 

When building a shed I will need to consider that summers are very hot down in the Palm Desert area as just because I am up north for the hottest months of summer does not mean that all the stuff I left behind is cool.  Think solar powered ventilation!?!?

 

Wow My Landscape

I have said before how neat in-post disclosure advertisements are because I only monetize my blog with cool things and it is fun to write about neat stuff that I really like.   Today's ad is about landscape issues.

Living in California part of each year, is a treat because this state has really nice landscaping just about everywhere we go.  So it is a constant challenge for me to try to keep my properties looking nice.  If you click the link in the above paragraph it takes you to a site called WowMyLandscape, which is a platform through which just about anyone can upload a photo of a chosen landscape and then sit back and watch magical things happen to it, conceptually that is.

Clutter Everywhere

I finally got up to the San Francisco Bay Area to start cleaning out a property I don't need up there any more in preparation for putting it up for sale or lease.  But now I have a roomful of boxes of stuff down here that I couldn't bear to throw away. 

Maybe I need some advice from Mimi Tanner, who is a decluttering expert.

 

I want to Rip my Carpets Out

It wouldn't be the first time.  The bedroom in my vacation home has the ugliest carpet.  I would much rather put a nice Hardwood Floor in there. I think that would look and feel nicer and be so much easier to clean.

Same thing with the dining area and the living room. Oh, excuse me, it is called an Arizona Room. Not sure why that is, but the drapes I found for cheap at BigLots are called Sedona drapes. That seemed like a good fit for the Arizona room. I like the drapes a lot, but the carpets all have to go. It is just a matter of when.

When I lived in the MidWest where the winters get very cold, carpeting seemed like a wonderful invention, but this is the sunny Southwest where already in January we are having upwards of 80F temperatures.  Even while there is snow on the mountaintops, down here people are running around in tank tops and shorts. 

Some of the newer vinyl flooring materials look like real tile or stone or wood, so it is hard to know just what surface to buy.  For some of us that probably depends on the way the floor is constructed underneath.

All I know about the underneath of my floor is that lately a racoon has been spotted going under there, and s/he did tear out a new section of my decorative siding, when I apparently blocked her in by putting a brick paver over her last hole.  I have heard stories of trapped racoons coming up through the floor.  Maybe it is time to call Animal Control. 

Heat or Air?

Last year at this time it was cold and raining.  This week I couldn't walk by the pool without wanting to jump in and go for a swim.  But instead of suiting up, I went to a nice local buffet and pigged out.  Oh, was it good! 

Even though the thing we call winter here is the desert is relatively short, I like to put on a few pounds over the New Year in order not to feel chilly come February and March. 

Also, as it gets cool in the night, when my 20-year old furnace conked out, I bought a new one. No more yucky pilot to relight, as now they have automatic starters, and Wahoo the thermostat on the new furnace is more accurate.  Not only does it reflect the actual room temperature, but it makes th temperature stay within one degree of what I selected.   When it comes on automatically to warm my place up in the morning, the sound of the blower does not even wake me up, but the warmth does.

Although I couldn't buy it at Heating System Austin  because this was for a place in Southern California, it is really nice to have a new furnace. It is cleaner, quieter, and more attractive and the filter is way easier to take out. 

Hopefully it will be another 20 years at least before I have to replace this one.  I will start saving my pennies now.